Event’s legacy programme launched in Kaptagat

IAAF World Under-18 Championships' Local Organising Committee assistant director of accommodation Peter Angwenyi (right) and the championships' volunteers plant trees at the Kaptagat Forest in Elgeyo Marakwet County as part of the championships' Legacy Programme on June 27, 2017. PHOTO | ELIAS MAKORI |

What you need to know:

  • The LOC launched the programme on Tuesday as the country marked this year’s National Tree Planting Day.

The local organising committee of the IAAF World Under-18 Championships has embarked on a programme to rehabilitate the Kaptagat Forest in the counties of Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo-Marakwet under their legacy programme.

The LOC launched the programme on Tuesday as the country marked this year’s National Tree Planting Day.

The sports officials, accompanied by multiple world distance running champions, also inspected the deforestation damage on Kaptagat Forest, a natural reserve which is a great contributor towards sports development in the region as it is home to a number of athletics training facilities.

The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) has undertaken the initiative to rehabilitate the destroyed parts of the forest as a way of contributing towards the sports rich region.

“As you all know, the biggest threat in the world today is degradation of the environment, so in the spirit of recovering this, IAAF has come in to ensure the conservation of the environment by participating in this tree planting exercise,” said Joseph Lagat, the Director for Marketing in the LOC.

Lagat said that under the programme, the LOC will give tickets to the July 12-16 global competition to every child who plants a tree to travel to Nairobi and watch the event at the Moi International Sports Centre.

He said they are targeting 1,000 children to benefit from the programme. The Championship is expected to attract over 2,000 participants from about 130 countries.